Bloodstains
by Kali Ravel
Summary: If he's innocent, why is her blood in his car?    Finchel.
1. Chapter 1

His mind stopped working. He was no longer present. Finn had left the building.

He was kissing her on the stage, for the first time. He was running away from her. He was twenty, and holding her hand as a doctor took bone marrow from her hip. He was telling her that he loved her before they went on stage. He was decorating their new apartment, covering the ceiling in stars to surprise her. He was kissing her, and he didn't care about nationals any more. He was holding her in the library. He was watching her in her first starring role on Broadway, Kurt next to him, cheering her on. He was fighting Jesse, and Puck. He was talking about children, only a month ago, half kidding, half not. He was seventeen, walking through her winter wonderland, and the part of him that was ten years older, that part that would have to check back in, soon, because the officer was talking, and he'd be expecting an answer, _that_ part of Finn was wishing he'd never run away from her. Ever.

He hadn't known that, one day, she'd be out of his reach. Deep down, he thought she'd always be there, for him to claim.

And now she wasn't, no one knew where she was, and the police wanted to talk to him about the bloodstains in his car.

AN:_ I would very much appreciate if you took time from your day to review._


	2. Chapter 2

Finn had reported the car stolen a week ago. He'd only bought the damn thing a month ago, a impulse purchase. Rachel had just been cast in a new show, and Finn's new business had been expanding rapidly. They could afford it, he figured, and, sure, they wouldn't use it so much in the city, but...

Okay, he hadn't thought that far. He'd just wanted that car, the car that he now wished had never existed. Maybe they'd drive out of the city some weekend. Maybe even drive through the US, someday when she was between shows. He had visions of himself and Rachel, visiting high schools in different cities. He'd take her on as a consultant, they'd do assemblies together, he'd build up some word of mouth, some acclaim, and it would be good for Rachel, too. The media would love it – the Broadway darling, rumoured to be a candidate for the next Tony Awards, spending her downtime touring schools, talking to kids about loyalty, friendship, and hard work. They'd stop by San Francisco and visit Mercedes, see Puck and Sam in California...

He thought she'd be pleased. He was so looking forward to seeing the look on her face.

It hadn't gone as he'd expected.

"This is just like you, Finn Hudson!"

She'd been upset about the car. He had no idea why. He'd come in so happy that he hadn't realised, until afterwards, that she'd been tense already. She'd been sitting in the dark, in silence, and that wasn't like her. But it was only afterwards, after she'd left, that he'd realised that, and wondered. But her phone was switched off, and he couldn't reach her.


	3. Chapter 3

Rachel knew she'd been unfair to Finn, but she couldn't help it. She'd spent all day worrying.

What if her understudy had to replace her? What if Finn had to cut his hours, and his business suffered? What would they do for money?

Dad and Daddy might help, she thought, but she couldn't bear to ask them. They'd been so proud of her, following her dream, and moving out here. They'd even rented a little _pied-à-terre _in the city so that they could come and see her perform. They came to the first night of every show, and gave a standing ovation at the end of every song. She couldn't tell them that she'd screwed everything up, that she might not be performing any more.

Rachel walked along the New York street in the drizzle, her arms folded across herself. For a moment, she thought of the night she and Finn had walked through New York, with the other Glee boys singing Belle Notte. Then she shook her head, as if to dissolve the memory. She'd known that night that her dreams would always take first place, to anything, even Finn. She'd been prepared to lose him, and she'd been so happy when he'd been willing to come with her, and she'd been able to have both. Now, though, she felt that she was being forced to choose again, though she knew it wasn't really a choice.

Rachel walked into the night, blinking back tears as she thought of losing the thing she'd wanted her entire life.


	4. Chapter 4

Finn thought about Rachel, in the ride over to the station. He thought of how kind she was. Y'know, when it didn't threaten her dream. He thought of how she'd always forgiven people, no matter what they'd done to her. How she'd become a vegan at sixteen, at first, just for health reasons, before becoming more interest in the animal rights side in her early twenties.

She'd given blood since she was eighteen, and he remembered how she'd been so proud of being type O negative, having a rarer blood type. It was just another way in which she was special, she figured. Of _course_ she was going to have a rare blood type. She was Rachel Berry!

She'd put herself on the bone marrow register at the same time. He didn't think she'd expected anyone to be a match, to require her bone marrow, but when it turned out that someone did, he'd gone with her, to hold her hand. The needle was huge, he remembered, and she'd hated looking at it.

They'd visited the kid in hospital afterwards. It was a huge coincidence that he'd been in the same area, the doctors had told them. A non-genetic match was rare, and the kid being someone they knew, Wes Brody, was even more unlikely. They'd never really heard of him before, but Brittany told them that he was in the same grade as her little sister. He'd been sweet, Finn remembered. Weak, of course, but happy. When he'd recovered, Finn had sometimes played softball with him and Lindsay, Brittany's sister. It was that that had given him the idea, to work with teenagers, to talk with them about healthy ways to manage conflicts, to offer them support with their dreams, like a guidance counsellor, but bigger, and better, making high school better for all the kids in the country.

He'd forgotten that dream through college, and for a few years afterwards, when he'd tried playing football professionally. Then it had come back to him, when Lindsay and Wes were fifteen or sixteen. He'd started working on making that vision tangible then, when he was twenty-three, and, over time, it had become what he wanted to do, more than athletics. He was taking on staff and expanding, running workshops, working with youth centres and local governments, to build more options, more things for kids to do, other than get into trouble. The kids had loved it when Rachel had come in to various Glee clubs, especially over the last few years, as she'd been cast in better and better roles. Things had been going so well.

Finn stared through the window into the night, his mind working furiously.


	5. Chapter 5

The officer was talking to him – talking at him – but Finn couldn't pay attention. He was reliving the three weeks since Rachel had gone missing.

After he'd try to call her, and found her phone switched off, he'd called Kurt. His stepbrother had been kind, but firm.

"Finn, this is just like Rachel," he said. Finn could almost hear him filing his nails. "She'll be walking through the rain, thinking, and feeling sorry for herself. Once she's figured it out, she'll come back in and make a big show and dance of telling you what's going on. Maybe literally!"

Finn smiled then, thinking of all the times she'd expressed herself in song. On their first night in this apartment, when she'd danced around the room, always just out of his reach.

"_Kiss me too fiercely..."_ she'd sung, in her sweet mezzo-soprano. "..._hold me too tight...I need help believing...you're with me tonight_..."

He'd caught her then, as she stopped to let her voice really soar on that last note, and they'd fallen on the bed together. She'd felt so tiny and fragile, beneath him. She was over a foot shorter than he was, and petite with it.

Kurt had advised him to get some sleep.

"Well, if she's turned her phone off, there's nothing you can do," he'd said.

"But what if it's her battery? What if she'd lost? What if she's cold, and alone, and hungry?"

Kurt had snorted, which Finn felt was unsympathetic. "Rachel Berry, lost in New York? Please. She's probably just crashed at a friend's house until she feels that it's the right dramatic moment to come home. Have you tried Leah?"

Finn had not tried Leah, an actress who often went for the same roles as Rachel, and with whom she had an uneasy friendship/rivalry. After hanging up with Kurt, he did consider trying her and the rest of Rachel's address book, but since it was 1am, he'd decided against the idea.


	6. Chapter 6

The next morning, the car was gone. Finn assumed Rachel had taken it, and spent the morning calling her friends. Most of them were home, but were not pleased about being woken up. Finn knew that they all considered 11am to be very early morning, but he was really starting to worry.

After he'd called everyone he could think of, Finn sat, staring out of the window. His last call had been to Brittany, who hadn't seen Rachel. Nor had Lindsay or Wes, who were both staying with Brittany. It was spring break, Finn remembered. That had lead him to his current train of thought – the year before, when Lindsay and Wes had been visiting, and they and Brittany had helped Rachel redecorate. He'd just rented office space, and moved his computer and files from the corner of the living room. Now it really was to be a living room, and not Finn's office, Rachel felt it was time to give it a little more personality. Find had come home to find the four of them covered in paint and glitter, and couldn't help but join in.

Rachel had felt somewhat protective of Wes since the operation, and Finn knew she worried about his health. She felt that she had a stake in it, and Finn could understand why. Their relationship had also been helped by the discovery that they were distantly related – only two years ago, Rachel had found out that Wesley's mother was Shelby's cousin. That explained the weird coincidence of the bone marrow, and gave her another excuse to hover over him.

Finn hadn't called the police right away. Rachel wasn't missing – she'd taken the car, and she was an adult. He knew the police would dismiss it as a lover's tiff, or even as her leaving him, something Finn couldn't bear to think was possible.

He'd called the theatre she'd been working at, and found that she'd been in touch to ask for a month off. She'd called that night he'd bought the car, right before he'd come home. Her manager wasn't pleased about it, but she'd never bailed on a play before, and that gave her some leeway.

No, Finn didn't get around to calling the police until the car came back, without Rachel.


	7. Chapter 7

"Let's see if I've got this straight," the policeman said. "Miss Berry left your shared apartment on the evening of the fifth, after an argument. You did not report her missing immediately, instead, waiting a week to report her disappearance."

Finn nodded, his face stony. They'd been over this a million times.

"Your neighbours report that they heard raised voices that night."

"Yes. We were fighting."

"Did you and Miss Berry often fight?"

"Well, yeah, we argued like any couple, but -"

"Right," said the policeman, making a note. He continued. "On the evening of the tenth, you reported Miss Berry's disappearance. The car that you claimed she had taken had been returned to you."

"I thought she'd taken it, but I don't see why she'd bring the car back, and then leave again."

"So the car took itself away and then came back?"

"I don't know!"

"Okay. This was also the evening when you informed Miss Berry's fathers of her disappearance, correct?"

"Yes, that's when I called Rachel's two dads."

"Right. We'll leave the question of why you left it so long, for now."

Finn started to speak, but the officer ignored him, and continued to summarise the situation. "When our officers checked your story with the neighbours, they heard those reports of raised voices. This, combined with the fact that you didn't report Miss Berry's disappearance sooner raised their suspicions enough to gain a warrant to search your home and car. It was then that they found the blood."

Finn rested his head in his hands.

"Although the car had been cleaned, blood was found on the passenger seat, and on the mirror above the passenger's seat. We then matched the DNA to Miss Berry's, using hair left in her hairbrush."

Finn stayed where he was, staring at the floor.

"So, why did you do it, Mr Hudson? One row too many?"

"I didn't do it! I'd never hurt Rachel!"

"So where is she, and why is her blood in your car?"

Finn felt tears pricking his eyelids. He wished, more than anything, that his mom were there. He was frightened. He had the same feeling he'd had, years before, when he'd believed that Quin was carrying his baby. The feeling that the earth had tilted, that one second had changed the world irreparably, leaving it unrecognisable. Like he'd made a mistake that there was no going back from.

Finn hadn't gone to church in years, but he found himself praying. He prayed that Rachel was okay. He prayed that she'd come back. He prayed that everything would work out.

It didn't seem likely.


	8. Chapter 8

If Finn had been articulate enough, he would have described loving Rachel as like performing. Like that feeling he'd gotten when they'd all stood on stage together, and he'd matched his voice to the music, and to hers, and created something unique. Every part of him had been focused on his voice, and everything had worked perfectly, and they'd been so perfectly matched to one another.

He'd felt like that at sixteen, when they'd stood backstage together, waiting. He'd had to tell her then, that he loved her, because that was the only label he could put on that feeling, like flying, and being alive, and falling, and being caught, all at once. She caught him.

A year later, he'd felt it again, that he was falling, and she caught him. The feeling went straight past his mind – it always had – and to his body. It went through him, like electricity. He'd kissed her, and the electricity ran through both of them, uniting them. She'd caught him. She caught him every time, because she knew him better than anyone else, instinctively.

He got the same feeling today, when he stood in front of an assembly of teenagers, trying to inspire them, trying to give them hope, like Mr Schue had given him, and he still associated her with that. She flew with him. That's what he saw when he kissed her, and, sometimes, it had scared him.

But Finn wasn't articulate enough. He couldn't explain any of that; he just knew he felt it, and he hoped she knew it too.

Wherever she was.


End file.
